Falling Under

Gutsy and provocative, Falling Under is the story of a reclusive young artist whose past begins to catch up with her when she falls in love. To find a breakthrough in both art and life, she must come to terms with her own dark secrets. Written in spare, crisp prose and marked by wry humor, Falling Under is a gripping contemporary tale of human weakness, friendship, and hard-earned redemption. More

REVIEWS

From NYT Bestselling author Caroline Leavitt, for Dame Magazine"Fierce, erotic and absolutely fearless, this riveting debut tunnels into the psyche of a young artist who is as self-destructive as she is talented. To transform her career and have any sort of shot at happiness, she must grapple with thorny secrets from her past and open herself up to the terror of love. Shocking and moving, Falling Under is as edgy as a razor blade and unlike anything you’ve ever read before."

From Kim Alexander for XM Radio Fiction Nation"Here's a debut novel that delivers, with a narrator who's afraid of just about everything except revealing herself on paper — there's a real element of 'I shouldn't be seeing this' in Younge-Ullman's work. The story of Mara, a talented painter so beset by her demons and fears that can she can barely leave her house, is set alongside the story of Mara's childhood, and I got the rare experience of both plunging forward with the story and stepping back to applaud the technical skill and bravery of the execution. Extreme, and extremely well done!"

From The National Post of Canada“Let’s cut to the chase: Toronto writer Danielle Younge-Ullman’s Falling Under is one of the most compelling debut novels I have read in a long time. It is gutsy, emotional, sexually charged and, because of its second-person narrative style, unremittingly intense.

Mara Foster is a screwed-up young visual artist living in Toronto. An only child, Mara was severely affected by her parents’ nasty divorce when she was little, and as an adult she tries to carry on relationships with both of them. Her mother, a successful career woman, can’t understand why Mara bothers with her slovenly, alcoholic dad. Mara too often plays parent to her parents rather than the other way around, and the strain is catching up with her. She suffers from agoraphobia (though she keeps denying the term) and other deep-rooted anxieties.

Her relationships with men are equally fraught and she carries a huge burden of guilt . . . and fears she will never be able to have another serious love affair. She has shut down her painting as well as her heart, and has settled for creating safe geometric pieces for furniture stores instead of expressing her emotions on the canvas.

All this changes when she meets Hugo and falls in love with him. The big plot question, of course, is whether Mara will get over her past and be able to enjoy a future with Hugo. How Younge-Ullman handles Mara’s journey is key. The story could have turned into something intolerably trite, especially since Younge-Ullman’s first attempt at a book was, by her own admission, a “chick lit” novel, and there are definitely elements of the genre here. However this is not necessarily to the book’s detriment. Because Younge-Ullman has talent (her experience as an actor and playwright serves her well too), she is able to take from chick lit what she finds useful, and then writes her guts out, hurtling ahead, pedal to the floor. The result is a gripping story, crackling with energy. It is also raw and visceral and passionate, and you get the feeling when you read it that the writer is totally unafraid. The fact that Younge-Ullman can maintain this pace and level of urgency is a major point to her credit, though it might well make some readers uncomfortable.

The other aspect that makes the story credible is Mara’s background, about which the author spends a lot of time filling us in. Without the knowledge of Mara’s history, her present would seem too melodramatic to ring true.

What I admire about this book, aside from its look-you-in-the-eye honesty, is what it says about the creation of art: the artist’s relationship to the work, the work’s relationship to life and (perhaps most significant) the process involved in bridging the two.”

Danielle Younge-Ullman is a novelist, playwright and freelance writer. She studied English and Theater at McGill University, then returned to her hometown of Toronto to work as professional actor for ten years. Her one-act play, 7 Acts of Intercourse, debuted at Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival in 2005. Danielle lives in Toronto with her husband, two daughters, and their dog, Finny. Falling Under is her first novel.

For more information including updates, a book club reading guide and links to interviews and podcasts, visit the author’s website.

Reviews

Review by:
Jen Chatfield
on Feb. 06, 2013 :
When I first dug into this book, I was expecting a more upbeat, romance-y type novel. So with that frame of mind it took me a few chapters at least to settle in - but boy what a nice surprise! Yes, the main character is flawed, her family is much less than ideal, and she has problems with love and relationships, which is found in just about every women's fiction book. But Danielle Younge-Ullman does these common themes with so much depth, so much care, and so much ease that not much about it is common.

It took me a little while to get used to the 2nd person in the flashbacks, but wow. It really worked. Instead of being boring back story, it made me feel like I was in on the action, effectively ensuring a connection with Mara. Younge-Ullman digs so deep into all of the characters, really, that it's difficult not to connect with and enjoy each of them in very different ways.

What I mean to say is that this novel had so much potential to suck. So much potential to be done wrong. But Younge-Ullman did everything right. So many times I empathized with Mara, found myself having been in her shoes. And Mara has a lot of issues, yes, but she just lives in spite of them – sometimes strangely, but still. And the tension in the story is just right – I couldn’t read fast enough to find out what happened (and I'm a ridiculously fast reader). It nearly read more like a suspense novel with the number of deliciously unexpected twists and turns.

Bottom line, I loved the characters, loved the innovative use of 2nd person, loved the imagery, loved the art, loved just about everything. The one very small complaint I have is the dialogue. A lot of the time it’s very short and choppy, which is fine on occasion, but people tend to talk in longer sentences at least some of the time. But it definitely wasn’t enough to keep me from turning pages (or flicking them, as I read it on my Kindle) with abandon.

SPOILER ALERT: I wanted to hate the ending – I mean come on, take the easy way out why don’t you? But in reality I couldn’t choose between the two of them, I loved them both equally. So I kind of liked being able to imagine her with both of them.

Highly recommended! Younge-Ullman's ability to make the seemingly most despicable people likeable is definitely unusual.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)